"DIODORUS SICULUS", Paris, Jehan Petit, c.1508. In small 8vo, p.  [1],2-123[=124],[6] / Signatures: a-v⁸·⁴ x⁶ y⁴. Printers mark (Renouard 890) on title page, engraved initial letters throughout. Contemporary full calf bound, gilt title and ornament on 5-nerves spine, visibly worn. Marbled endpapers (first page semi-detached), red edge pages, clean and tight. 

The ‘editio princeps’ of Diodorus’ Bibliotheca historica, a universal history in forty books completed sometime between 36 and 30 BC, was a Latin translation of the first five books by Poggio Bracciolini in 1472 [represented as 1-6, as book 1 is in two parts]. It contains a description of the cultural heritage and geography of Egypt (book 1), Mesopotamia, India, Scythia, and Arabia (book 2), North Africa (book 3), Greece (book 4) and Europe (book 5). The present work was edited by Gilles de Maizières (Aegidius Maserius), cf. dedication and explicit. It contains many traditional forgeries, including Ctesias, and (in book 5) an account of the lost Historia sacra of Euhemerus (c. 300 bc).

Edited by Gilles de Maizières from the "Epistle to Young People". Typographic material by Jean Marchant. Dated after the mark of Jean Petit; address under the title “in vico sancti Jacobi, sub Leone Argenteo”.

Rare and Good copy.